CPP touched by plight of Western Region

THE Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called for an affirmative action, similar to what pertains to the people of the three northern regions on education, to address the concerns of the chiefs and people of the Western Region concerning the oil find.
Giving another dimension to the call by chiefs from the Western Region for a 10 per cent share of the oil revenue, the party said the adoption of such a “social contract” would address the real issues at stake and remove the demand for a fixed percentage of the oil revenue.
The CPP’s Shadow Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, articulated the party’s position at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
He said the founder of the CPP, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, decided on an educational policy to address the imbalance between the people of the north and their counterparts in the south which had worked.
He added that the Mills government had also thought it wise to introduce the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to accelerate the process of closing the yawning development gap between the north and the south, noting that it would not be out of place to have another affirmative action to address the developmental needs of the people of the Western Region.
He said the CPP was of the strong conviction that the anxiety level of the people of the Western Region had risen because of the failure of governments since 1966 to ensure even and consistent development throughout the country and urged the current administration to act with some urgency to bring significant development to the doorstep of every region and, “in this particular case, to the Western Region”.
According to Dr Nduom, the social contract would deliver a number of benefits, including alternative livelihoods for affected fishermen, infrastructure such as roads, social amenities such as schools, water and electricity, an environmental impact fund and action plan to mitigate the negative effects of any future degradation and spillage, as well as employment opportunities through the considered development of oil and gas related companies in the region.
He added that the CPP accepted the principle of oil revenue as a national asset and maintained its “long-standing belief in Ghana as a unitary state where, as one nation and one people, all benefits are shared. We empathise with the chiefs and people of the Western Region in their quest to seek redress for the lack of development due the region over the years”.
Regarding the Oil Revenue Management Bill which is before Parliament, he said the CPP would urge legislators to maintain the provision that prohibited the use of Ghana’s oil revenue as security for borrowing of any type for the sake of prudence and not to mortgage the future in any way.
He also expressed the party’s reservations over the use of 50 to 70 per cent of the oil revenue to support the budget because that would make the impact of the oil revenue diluted and its use hidden, as Ghanaians might not know exactly what it was used to fund.
Dr Nduom said the claim by the Minister of Finance in the 2011 budget that the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) was a significant fiscal challenge, with arrears already totalling GH¢1 billion, and that the implementation of the SSSS “would result in inadequate resources for funding of social intervention programmes on a sustainable basis” were just means to prepare the ground for slowing the pace for the implementation of the pay reform.
He said while the CPP recognised the fiscal challenges to the government, it believed that more would be gained by expediting action on the implementation of the pay reform in all its forms, particularly with speed and courage to enable all government workers to enjoy the benefits of equal pay for work of equal value.